Librivox recording of A Plan and Preface to a Dictionary of English by Samuel Johnson.

Read by Denny Sayers.

The published dictionary was a huge book: with pages nearly 1½ feet tall and 20 inches wide, it contained 42,773 words; it also sold for the huge price of £4/10s. ($400?). It would be years before “Johnson’s Dictionary”, as it came to be known, would ever turn a profit; authors’ royalities being unknown at that time, Johnson, once his contract to deliver the book was fulfilled, received no further monies connected to the book.

Johnson, once again a freelance writer, albeit now a famous one, faced a grim hand-to-mouth existence; however, in July 1762 the twenty-four year old King George III granted Johnson an annual pension of £300. While not making Johnson rich, it allowed him a modest yet comfortable independence for the remaining thirty years of his life.

(Summary from Wikipedia)

For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording.

For more free audiobooks, or to become a volunteer reader, please visit librivox.org.

Download M4B (66MB)

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews